In Case You Hadn’t Noticed, PGA Is This Week

Pity the poor 2008 PGA Championship, golf’s fourth major, which tees off bright and early this Thursday morning. If you weren’t aware of that, well, you can forgive yourself, because it’s getting about as much media coverage this week as John McCain did while Obama was in Europe.↵↵As if it isn’t bad enough for the PGA that it’s going to be a Tiger-less major here in the States -- which publicity-wise for the men’s tour pretty much amounts to a Bono-less U2 -- then you throw in the fact that it’s being played at Oakland Hills Country Club in Michigan, a most worthy and historical golf course that nonetheless doesn’t garner a lot of attention in and of itself.↵

↵↵And then there is that third point in its non-favor, a small but salient issue -- it’s coinciding with the start of THE OLYMPICS! Talk about your bad strokes of luck. Always the blind sister of the poor among the four major tournaments, the PGA generally derives one benefit from its placement on the calendar, which is that not much of anything else worth paying attention to is going on in August. ↵

↵↵Not this year. The first round of the PGA is Thursday, and come Friday it’s the Opening Ceremony in Beijing. This year’s fourth major is shaping up to be The Tournament That Never Happened.↵

↵↵To that end, I’m just writing here to remind you of its existence. There is a golf tournament this week, and whoever wins it will thereafter be considered a major champion whether anyone acknowledges that fact or not. Vegas has Phil Mickelson as a 9/1 favorite to win, with Vijay Singh, Paddy Harrington and Sergio Garcia behind Phil at 18/1. Myself, I’m feeling Adam Scott at 28/1 and for a very, VERY longshot, how about Davis Love at $125 on the dollar? People, I’m telling you, get your bets in now and then you can, you know, forget about the whole thing like everybody else. ↵

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